Reviews

Macadamia Nut Oil

Clean, slightly nutty flavor. Use instead of olive oil to get more "good" fats in our diet. Macadamia Nut Oil is 83% monounsaturated fat, and has the most balanced ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It is also a rare source of palmitoleic acid (omega-7) which research suggests helps fight weight gain.

Macadamia Nut oil is very useful in the kitchen. Besides having a neutral though slightly nutty flavor, it has a high burn point, making it suitable for high-heat cooking, sauteing and stir-fry.

About the producer - Brookfarm
Brookfarm was founded in 1999 by Pam and Martin Brook. Their macadamia plantation is in St. Helena, overlooking beautiful Byron Bay in sub-tropical Northern New South Wales, Australia.

Brookfarm is a working farm of approximately 4500 macadamia trees - the majority of which were planted in 1989. This area is the original home of the macadamia, a native Australian rainforest tree. The rich red fertile volcanic soils, high rainfall and the warm sub-tropical climate of the Byron hinterland are the ideal conditions for growing macadamias.

We first meet Pam and Martin in January, 2008. That was when we learned how committed Pam and Martin are to Natural Methods Farming and sustainability. As an example, six years ago they, like other typical macadamia nut plantations, baited for rats. At the time, it seemed like the only choice as they would regularly lose 7-8% of our macadamia crop to rat damage. Today, they use no rat baits at all, and rat damage is down to 0.3%. That is because at the very center of the plantation is a regenerated rainforest, with some old re-growth forest. Over the past 20 years, Pam and Martin have planted over 30,000 sub-tropical rainforest and Eucalypt trees in an effort to re-establish the sub-tropical forest, and its related wildlife. Today, several breeding pairs of owls have now made a home in our forests, and breeding pair of owls will consume up to 1500 rats and mice a year.

This is just one example of their commitment to natural farming methods and integrated pest management. In January 2009, they began their 3 year transition to full Organic Certification and they have completely eliminated the use of chemicals, pesticides and artificial fertilizers from their farm.